Almost Lover
by Lara-Cat
Summary: Goodbye, my almost lover Goodbye, my hopeless dream I'm trying not to think about you Can't you just let me be? So long, my luckless romance My back is turned on you I should've known you'd bring me heartache Almost lovers always do


_Your fingertips across my skin  
The palm trees swaying in the wind  
Images_

Nadia Zeal, fifteen year old daughter of Hecate sat on the beach with her best friend and son of Hephaestus, Leo Valdez.  
Her mousy brown hair and tan, and slightly freckled skin was common in her small, unheard of, town back home in Washington State. But her eyes, her grassy green eyes with specks of gold and chocolate brown captured people with their passion.  
"Hey Leo can I ask you a question?" She asked.  
"Yeah, of course, anything," He responded with a smile. She looked up Leo, who, even when sitting was taller than her, and she felt her heart give a small flutter.  
"Do you ever wonder what your life might be like if we didn't have gods a parents- if we were, you know; mortals?" She asked in a whisper as the sun started set the sky looked like a painting, or an extravagant quilt.  
"Yeah, yeah I do. Truth is Nadia, I don't like it, or at least not all the time," Leo murmured after a moment of silence.  
"I don't follow you," she said with her eyebrows together and he smiled again, this time it was a lazy smile.  
It was the kind of smile that didn't bother to hide the brokenness in a person.  
"I don't like it because I would have never met Nico or Percy or Anabeth or piper or Jason- and I wouldn't have met you," He explained, his left hand, lifted it and clasped hers for a moment before letting a single digit trace shapes on her skin.

_You sang me Spanish lullabies  
The sweetest sadness in your eyes  
Clever trick_

"Leo," Nadia said in the infirmary.  
It was Friday night, after a game of capture the flag and a son of Hermes had a score to settle with her.  
"Yeah what is it? Are you okay? Do I-,"  
"Leo, I just wanted you to sing me a song," she giggled, cutting her friend off.  
"Huh?" He asked in utter confusion.  
"I've only slept in two beds Leo, here and back in Washington- so I was hopping you could sing me a song," Nadia explained, biting a thin lip.  
"Alright, but I'm no son of Apollo," he said jokingly from the foot of her cot.  
"Thanks Leo," she whispered to him and his lips turned upwards.  
""Din dan, din don dan,  
campanitas sonarán.  
Din dan, din don dan." Nadia's eyes were fighting sleep and Leo chuckled.  
"Sleep," he said before continuing,  
"que a los niños dormirán  
Dindilín dandalán dandalán dan,  
las estrellas brillarán.  
Cierra los ojos y duérmete ya,  
porque la noche muy pronto vendrá.  
Dan, dan, dan" Leo sang softly, smiling as Nadia's green eyes fluttered shut for the next six hours.

_I never want to see you unhappy  
I thought you'd want the same for me_

Leo had been in his workshop all day; Nadia had waited outside even though Leo had told her to go away.  
Why would she? She figured it out a while ago- she was in love with him, and after that- horrid in Nadia's humble opinion -daughter of Aphrodite told him to 'get loss and go drown in the lake!'  
Leo had locked the door and started to work.  
Or sulk.  
Either one.

_Goodbye, my almost lover  
Goodbye, my hopeless dream  
I'm trying not to think about you  
Can't you just let me be?  
So long, my luckless romance  
My back is turned on you  
I should've known you'd bring me heartache  
Almost lovers always do_

Nadia looked at Leo flirt with another girl, and she felt her heart break.  
She shook her head.  
'Do not think about him,' Nadia thought to herself as she turned her back on the two and walked to the archery range.  
She heard his laugh and than what she guessed what the girl called a giggle- though it was more like a pigs squeal- and her heart broke even more.  
'Do not think about him," he repeated again and set off to mutilate a target.  
_  
We walked along a crowded street  
You took my hand and danced with me  
Images_

Nadia and Leo, and a bunch of other demi-gods were aloud a day out in the city.  
They were on Staten Island for no real reason, in Port Richmond when they heard one of those corner street performers.  
The man was only strumming a guitar and smiling at those who placed money in the worn out fedora that was at his feet.  
"Come on," Leo said grinning mischievously.  
Before the brunet had any time to disagree the boy took her hand and started to spin her on the side walk as other teens- mortals –and adults looked at them as if they'd grown a second head.

_And when you left you kissed my lips  
You told me you'd never ever forget these images, no_

"Jason picked me for a quest," Leo told Nadia as they at on the beach.  
"What?" She asked, clearly worried.  
"Yeah, we leave at sun set…" Leo replied, trailing off.  
The quest was dangerous; the prophecy said one might die.  
But he didn't tell her that.  
"What aren't you saying, Leo?"  
He didn't answer with words.  
Instead he pressed his lips to hers and after a moment of supersize Nadia threaded her fingers threw his chocolate curls.  
His bottom lip was caught between her and Nadia nibbled on it.  
Leo pulled away for a moment, smiling like a blissful idiot.  
At the moment that was all he felt, bliss.  
"Leo," Nadia whispered and the air was sucked from his lungs.  
"Yes?"  
"If you don't make it back-,"  
"I will never forget you."

_I cannot go to the ocean  
I cannot drive the streets at night  
I cannot wake up in the morning  
Without you on my mind  
So you're gone and I'm haunted  
And I bet you are just fine  
Did I make it that easy  
To walk right in and out of my life?_

He still wasn't back.  
None of them were.  
It had been a month and a half and all Nadia could do was wait.  
Because when she tried to Iris message him it didn't work- if he was dead it would show her his ghost, so where was he?  
But because of this gut numbing worry she couldn't go to the beach.  
She'd think of him.  
She couldn't ride Pegasus.  
She'd think of him.  
And if she woke up in the morning, she'd think he was in his cabin, not somewhere missing.  
Nadia was haunted; there was no other way to describe it.  
_  
Goodbye, my almost lover  
Goodbye, my hopeless dream  
I'm trying not to think about you  
Can't you just let me be?  
So long, my luckless romance  
My back is turned on you  
I should've known you'd bring me heartache  
Almost lovers always do_


End file.
